He preached the gospel around the world and served as a counselor to decades of American leaders.

The Rev. Billy Graham, one of the most influential religious figures in U.S. history and a trusted adviser to decades of U.S. presidents, has died. He was 99.

Graham was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1992. For decades starting with Harry Truman, Graham would be seen at the side of U.S. presidents as he served as a valued counselor, during both their brightest days and their sleepless nights. "People in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to," the evangelist said in 2011. ...
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"Has anyone had to bury their child because of pornography?" asked Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D), who sponsored the legislation seeking to ban assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines.

As tearful survivors of the Parkland school shooting watched, the Republican-led Florida House of Representatives on Tuesday refused to discuss a ban on assault weapons. Photos showed a distraught student being comforted in the gallery. Another survivor of last week's massacre expressed "indescribable" rage on Twitter.

Later in the day, many of the same lawmakers discussed at length a bill that declares porn a public health risk. The bill ? which calls for improved "education, research and policy changes to protect Floridians, especially teenagers, from pornography" -- was approved by a voice vote, reported the Tampa Bay Times. ...
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Headlines

"Orgies While People Are Dying": How Charity Oxfam Allowed Sex Abuse in Ailing Countries Like Haiti

Edwidge Danticat: I Hope Oxfam Sex Scandal in Haiti Is a #MeToo Moment for Aid Organizations

Inside the U.S. Military Recruitment Program That Trained Nikolas Cruz to be "A Very Good Shot"

"Black Panther" broke several box office records in its opening weekend. The latest film in the Marvel movie canon earned more than $201 million (and counting) and was the biggest opening ever for a movie directed by an African-American -- or not directed by a white man.

But beyond the numbers, "Black Panther" [won hearts and minds culturally]. Moviegoers across the country dressed in costume or traditional African prints to celebrate the film's release. And the blockbuster platform elevated a black superhero to superstar status -- along with a gorgeous, brilliant and daring entourage of warrior women.

U.S. senators are planning to mark the 10th anniversary of Wall Street's meltdown this year with a gift to the nation's banks: a bill that would unravel regulations put in place after the crisis.

The proposed rollback of some key post-crisis rules - which could advance in the coming weeks - is one of the few examples of bipartisanship in Washington since President Donald Trump's election.

On one side are moderate Democrats such as Sens. Heidi Heitkamp and Jon Tester from Republican-leaning states who support the legislation because they say it will provide relief to small and regional banks and boost rural economies.

On the other are progressives like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown and their activist allies, who argue that the bill will put consumers at risk. They're working to undercut the party's centrists before the vote, with several of the moderates -- as well as Brown -- facing tough reelection campaigns this year. ...
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Cancer drug Lomustine, at one point was being sold for around $50 a capsule, the same dose now costs $768.TYT | author | 02/19/18

Lomustine has been used to treat brain tumours, lung cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma for more than 40 years but is now seen by some patients as too expensive.

In 2013, production of the drug, which was previously called CeeNU, passed from pharma giant Bristol-Myers Squibb to a Miami-based startup called NextSource Biotechnology.

At that point it was being sold for around $50 a capsule. The same dose now costs $768 (£570).

NextSource has increased the price nine times in less than five years. A 20 per cent hike in August was followed by a further 12 per cent rise in November, according to analysis by the Wall Street Journal. Prices of other doses of the drug, which the company has renamed Gleostine, have also been increased exponentially.

Although the patent for lomustine has expired, there is no generic version being produced and so NextSource has no competitors to discourage it from raising prices.

Professor Henry Friedman, a neuro-oncologist at Duke University, said: "This is simply price gouging. People are not going to be able to afford it, or they're going to pay a lot of money and have financial liability."

Trump has... spent 26% of his time out on the golf course spend 33% of his time at a Trump branded property cost US $43,000,000.00 in tax payer money for golf.

A Consensus Emerges: Russia Committed an "Act of War" on Par With Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Should the U.S. Response Be Similar?TheIntercept | Glenn Greenwald | 02/19/18

IN THE WAKE of last week's indictments alleging that 13 Russian nationals and entities created fake social media accounts and sponsored political events to sow political discord in the U.S., something of a consensus has arisen in the political and media class (with some notable exceptions) that these actions not only constitute an "act of war" against the U.S., but one so grave that it is tantamount to Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Indeed, that Russia's alleged "meddling" is comparable to the two most devastating attacks in U.S. history has, overnight, become a virtual cliché.

The claim that Russian meddling in the election is "an act of war" comparable to these events isn't brand new. Senators from both parties, such as Republican John McCain and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, have long described Russian meddling in 2016 as an "act of war." Hillary Clinton, while promoting her book last October, described Russia's alleged hacking of the DNC and John Podesta's email inbox as a "cyber 9/11." And last February, the always war-hungry Tom Friedman of the New York Times said on "Morning Joe" that Russian hacking "was a 9/11-scale event. They attacked the core of our democracy. That was a Pearl Harbor-scale event." ...

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In April 1999, two students killed 12 classmates, one teacher and themselves at Columbine High School in Colorado. Nineteen years later, a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In between, an estimated 150,000 students experienced a shooting at their school.

The students at Parkland were born after Columbine. And now some of the survivors are taking action to try to ensure children born today won't grow up in a world where school shootings are common occurrences.

After a national outcry over gun violence in Florida last week, there are the early signs of compromise in Washington: President Donald Trump has endorsed a bipartisan proposal to strengthen gun background checks. But what is this legislation, and could it have helped prevent last week's bloodshed?

A recent studybased on 25 years of NASA and European satellite data shows how sea level rise on earth is increasing faster than originally thought. Water levels have been going upby accelerating incrementally in recent decades, rather than in the steady mode past studies had suggested.

Global warming and consequently the rapid ice meltoccurring in both Greenland and Antarctica, are responsible for this acceleration. The research project that has brought light to this new finding is led by Steve Nerem, a professor of aerospace engineering science at the University of Colorado Boulder, fellow at the Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), and a member of NASA´s Sea Level Change team. ...
Read moreNASA: We're Entering Waterworld | TYT | 02/18/18 | 8:47

Former economic hit man John Perkins shares new details about the ways he and others cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Then he reveals how the deadly EHM cancer he helped create has spread far more widely and deeply than ever in the US and everywhere else -- to become the dominant system of business, government, and society today. Finally, he gives an insider view of what we each can do to change it.
Economic hit men are the shock troops of what Perkins calls the corporatocracy, a vast network of corporations, banks, colluding governments, and the rich and powerful people tied to them. If the EHMs can't maintain the corrupt status quo through nonviolent coercion, the jackal assassins swoop in. The heart of this book is a completely new section, over 100 pages long, that exposes the fact that all the EHM and jackal tools -- false economics, false promises, threats, bribes, extortion, debt, deception, coups, assassinations, unbridled military power--are used around the world today exponentially more than during the era Perkins exposed over a decade ago.
The material in this new section ranges from the Seychelles, Honduras, Ecuador, and Libya to Turkey, Western Europe, Vietnam, China, and, in perhaps the most unexpected and sinister development, the United States, where the new EHMs -- bankers, lobbyists, corporate executives, and others -- "con governments and the public into submitting to policies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer."

According to investigative journalist Tim Shorrock:
...what we have today with the intelligence business is something far more systemic: senior officials leaving their national security and counterterrorism jobs for positions where they are basically doing the same jobs they once held at the CIA, the NSA and other agencies-- but for double or triple the salary, and for profit. It's a privatization of the highest order, in which our collective memory and experience in intelligence -- our crown jewels of spying, so to speak -- are owned by corporate America. Yet, there is essentially no government oversight of this private sector at the heart of our intelligence empire. And the lines between public and private have become so blurred as to be nonexistent.

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An AR-15-style rifle isn't just the weapon of choice for the perpetrators of mass shootings in San Bernardino, Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs and Parkland, it's the weapon of choice for the nation. The NRA Blog even quipped in 2016 that the AR stands for "America's Rifle" (they do note that it officially stands for ArmaLite Rifle):

Today, the AR-15 has soared in popularity amongst gun owners, due to a wide-range of factors. It is customizable, adaptable, reliable and accurate that can be used in sport shooting, hunting and self-defense situations. Civilians can also modify and personalize their AR-15 from carbine-length, stocks, optics, barrels, etc. The AR-15s ability to be modified to your own personal taste is one of the things that makes it so unique.

The "So, SO, SOOOO many accessories" the post touts for the AR-15 can also make it hold more rounds and shoot more accurately. And since it can be customized to almost no end (there's even a Hello Kitty model out there), the AR-15 can be a reflection of the owner's personality. And when a gun is in the hands of potentially millions of Americans, many of whom will never shoot anyone, what does it say about the nation's personality?

President Trump's Proposed Budget Is Bad for U.S. National Securityamericanprogress.org | author | older, 03/01/17

There are several issues surrounding President Trump's proposed defense budget increase, starting with the fact that U.S. defense spending is already incredibly high: It currently accounts for more than one-third of the world's total military expenditures. According to the latest numbers from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the United States spent $604.5 billion on defense in 2016, more than four times the next-biggest spender, China, which spent $145 billion, and more than 10 times the third-biggest spender, Russia, which spent $58.9 billion. Further, the U.S. armed forces are already strong. According to Michael O'Hanlon and retired Gen. David Petraeus, "the United States has the best military in the world today, by far. ...
Read moreClick to zoom inTop 15 Defense Budgets 2016

But there is one quirk that consistently puzzles America's fans and critics alike. Why, they ask, does it experience so many mass shootings? Perhaps, some speculate, it is because American society is unusually violent. Or its racial divisions have frayed the bonds of society. Or its citizens lack proper mental care under a health care system that draws frequent derision abroad.

These explanations share one thing in common: Though seemingly sensible, all have been debunked by research on shootings elsewhere in the world. Instead, an ever-growing body of research consistently reaches the same conclusion.

Sue Klebold is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two shooters who committed the Columbine High School massacre, murdering 12 students and a teacher. She's spent years excavating every detail of her family life, trying to understand what she could have done to prevent her son's violence. In this difficult, jarring talk, Klebold explores the intersection between mental health and violence, advocating for parents and professionals to continue to examine the link between suicidal and homicidal thinking.

The failure of a months-long effort to help Dreamers is the latest display of legislative ineptitude.

A conservative senator from Oklahoma with a youthful visage, Lankford had been working since September to help so-called Dreamers. The 49-year-old Lankford dutifully attended bipartisan meetings, cobbling together ideas and trying to enlist support for a bipartisan deal. But when the group showed him the latest draft of their plan Tuesday night, Lankford was stunned. It was far from what he had expected.

"I looked through the outlines of the proposal and realized: 'This is nothing close to what we've talked about,'" Lankford said. ...
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South African President Jacob Zuma resigned. Zimbabwe lost a man of conscience and courage with the death of Morgan Tsvangirai. And the future of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes under more doubt.

And why is Australia's Prime Minister banning sex between his ministers and their staff?

We are all reeling after yet another senseless shooting that took place at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people lost their lives and more than a dozen are hospitalized. Donald Trump gave a speech addressing the tragic events saying that no child or teacher should be afraid of their lives while at school. Jimmy agrees with Trump but in order to fix this SOMETHING has to be done. We need real laws that keep assault rifles out of the hands of people who are going to shoot our kids. These Congressmen and lobbyists don't work for the NRA, they work for us. If you want to help go to www.everytown.org and write to your representatives. If they don't listen, vote them out.

That's an average of one school shooting every 60 hours thus far in 2018, more than double the number of school shootings recorded in any of the previous three years in that same period. Those numbers are according to data compiled by the gun control advocacy organization Everytown for Gun Safety, which defines a school shooting as any time a firearm is discharged on or around a campus.

Details are still emerging about what happened during Wednesday's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, but as of 6:30 pm., at least 15 people had been reported dead. President Donald Trump has spoken vaguely about the need to curb shootings, saying after the Las Vegas massacre in October that the U.S. would start "talking about gun laws as time goes by." ...
Read more290 School Shootings In America Since 2013 | everytownresearch.org | current | graph

Death by China: Confronting the Dragon - A Global Call to Action by Peter Navarro
Peter Navarro is a Harvard Ph.D. economist and professor of public policy at the University of California, Irvine. His latest book Death By China is a sequel to his best-selling book The Coming China Wars and is now a documenatry film.
In addition to his work on China, Professor Navarro has written numerous books on strategically managing the business cycle from both an executive and a stock trading point of view. ...

Will there be war with China? This book provides the most complete and accurate assessment of the probability of conflict between the United States and the rising Asian superpower. Equally important, it lays out an in-depth analysis of the possible pathways to peace. Written like a geopolitical detective story, the narrative encourages reader interaction by starting each chapter with an intriguing question that often challenges conventional wisdom.

Based on interviews with more than thirty top experts, the author highlights a number of disturbing facts about China's recent military buildup and the shifting balance of power in Asia: the Chinese are deploying game-changing "carrier killer" ballistic missiles; some of America's supposed allies in Europe and Asia are selling highly lethal weapons systems to China in a perverse twist on globalization; and, on the U.S. side, debilitating cutbacks in the military budget send a message to the world that America is not serious about its "pivot to Asia."

In the face of these threatening developments, the book stresses the importance of maintaining US military strength and preparedness and strengthening alliances, while warning against a complacent optimism that relies on economic engagement, negotiations, and nuclear deterrence to ensure peace.

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Headlines

When Will This Stop? 17 Shot Dead in Florida School Massacre, the 18th School Shooting of Year

The Gun Trace Task Force is an elite unit of the Baltimore Police Department charged with getting illegal firearms off the streets. But a day on the job for several of its members included illegal searches and seizures of thousands of dollars, jailing innocent civilians, dealing illicit drugs or weapons and falsifying payroll documents.

Many of their tactics increased citizens' fear and resentment of officers and did nothing to abate the city's violent crime rate. Eight members of the task force were indicted last year. This week, two were convicted of racketeering, robbery and fraud. They face up to 60 years in prison.

There is an official call to disband the entire Baltimore PD, something the mayor says won't happen. Something to that effect has been implemented in Oakland and Camden, New Jersey -- but can you change a culture of high-level corruption without wiping the slate clean?

And Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is giving senators only one week to find a solution for Dreamers.

The Senate's much-anticipated immigration debate stalled on Tuesday with party leaders feuding over how to even begin. And there may not be much time left to reach a deal, as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that the Senate's work on a solution to the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program would be limited to this week. ...

... McConnell twice attempted to set up floor votes on a sanctuary cities amendment from Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and a competing proposal chosen by Democrats. But Democrats objected, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) saying the Toomey language "doesn't address Dreamers, nor does it address border security" -- the two basic elements underpinning this week's debate over the fate of hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who will soon be at risk of deportation. ...
Read moreMitch McConnell Tricks The Democrats Again | TYT | 02/13/18 | 7:37

Michael Cohen, personal attorney for President Donald Trump, told The New York Times on Tuesday that he paid Stephanie Clifford (a.k.a. porn star Stormy Daniels)$130,000 in 2016. However, he insisted that the money was his own.

"Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly," Cohen told the newspaper. "The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone." ...
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Trump Still Hasn't Chosen A Science Adviser -- After 390 Days In Office.

A report written by a Georgetown University team led by Phillip Karber conducted a three-year study to map out China's complex tunnel system, which stretches 5,000 km (3,000 miles). The report determined that the stated Chinese nuclear arsenal is understated and as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads may be stored in the underground tunnel network.

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Two Reuters Journalists Face 14 Years in Burmese Prison After Exposing Massacre of Rohingya Muslims

According to a 23-page document from U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, pharmaceutical companies funneled millions to pain-treatment advocacy groups who then turned around and promoted prescription painkillers to their clients. (See below for the full report.)
Purdue Pharma says its representatives have stopped marketing Oxycotin to physicians, but is that too little, too late?

In 2016, at least 42,000 Americans died after overdosing on opioids. The drug killed more people that year than falls, guns or car accidents -- and it isn't slowing down.

Trump sent Congress a $4.4 trillion budget proposal on Monday outlining steep cuts to domestic programs, large increases in military spending and a ballooning federal deficit that illustrates how far Republicans have strayed from their longtime embrace of balanced budgets. ...

Shocking allegations about the alleged serial sexual harasser were submitted in a suit filed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The complaint was filed in New York County Supreme Court late Sunday. It alleges stunning violations of the state's human rights, civil rights, and business laws.

It claims Weinstein "regularly berated women using gender-based obscenities"--calling female employees "c--t" or "pussy" instead of using their first names when he was angry. In addition to the sexual harassment, bullying, and allegations of sexual assault, Weinstein allegedly threatened the lives of his employees, saying "I will kill your family," and, "You don't know what I can do."

... That theory about unemployment in a capitalist economy is relevant to how analysts are pulling apart the two-day collapse of the stock market that began Friday, and its subsequent wild swings. Market watchers have said flat-out that the crash was triggered by a new jobs report released Friday that showed that wages, nearly a decade into the recovery, might finally be starting to rise.

Now, when analysts say that the Dow Jones industrial average went up or down for this or that reason, they are often just guessing. What specifically moves a body as complex as the stock market is in some ways unknowable, but it is useful to explore the cause being ascribed to last week's crash -- rising wages -- apart from its implications for the market. What it says about the way our economy is structured is much more profound. ...
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"It's Hard to Believe, But Syria's War Is Getting Worse": World Powers Clash as Civilian Deaths Soar

In just a few months, the #MeToo movement has affected nearly every major institution and industry. It has led to the resignations or firings of men accused of sexual harassment, assault or misconduct in entertainment, government, the military, the church and various other institutions and fields. And it has had effects outside of the United States.

Women continue to speak up, and powerful men continue to face accusations. This has begun to spark a backlash, and a number of questions.

After [the Aziz Ansari story and its subsequent debate]: What constitutes misconduct?

After White House Aide Rob Porter left his job: How does domestic abuse fit into the movement?

And with the state of New York suing Harvey Weinstein: What role does law enforcement have?

But the biggest question, which has been asked since the movement was only a few weeks old: What next?

The United States intelligence community has been conducting a top-secret operation to recover stolen classified U.S. government documents from Russian operatives, according to sources familiar with the matter. The operation has also inadvertently yielded a cache of documents purporting to relate to Donald Trump and Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Over the past year, American intelligence officials have opened a secret communications channel with the Russian operatives, who have been seeking to sell both Trump-related materials and documents stolen from the National Security Agency and obtained by Russian intelligence, according to people involved with the matter and other documentary evidence. The channel started developing in early 2017, when American and Russian intermediaries began meeting in Germany. Eventually, a Russian intermediary, apparently representing some elements of the Russian intelligence community, agreed to a deal to sell stolen NSA documents back to the U.S. while also seeking to include Trump-related materials in the package. ...
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... While we await the full release, Bloomberg has noted that Trump's FY19 budget proposal calls for $1.7t in cuts to mandatory spending and receipts and a 2% yearly reduction in non-defense discretionary budget after 2019. As part of the mandatory spending, the budget projects $237 billion in savings from Medicare over 10 years. ...

Or summarized:

Budget request calls for $716b for defense and includes a 2.6% pay raise for troops

$80b in IT and cyber- funding as well as $210m for a technology modernization fund

Nearly $17b in opioid-related spending in 2019, including $10b in new funding for HHS

The name Jack Abramoff is synonymous with Washington scandal, but the fascinating facts of his case are either largely unknown or wildly misunderstood. His memoir will serve as a corrective - an engrossing, informative work of political nonfiction that is also a gripping real-life thriller. The biggest surprise twist comes in the form of Abramoff himself, a smart, funny, charming, clear-eyed narrator who confounds every expectation of the media's villainous portrait. He's a perfect bundle of contradictions: an Orthodox Jew and upstanding family man with a staunch moral streak, caught in multiple scandals of bribery and corruption with an undercurrent of murder. Abramoff represented Indian tribes whose lucrative casinos were constantly under threat from proposed changes in law; though he charged the tribes many millions, he saved them billions by ensuring votes to support the livelihoods of their reservations. Much of Jack's share was funneled not into his own coffers, but to charities. Abramoff on the front pages could not be further from the Jack Abramoff who's ready to tell his honest and compelling story.

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Headlines

Scores of Democratic Lawmakers Join GOP to Back Budget Bill with No Protection for DREAMers

Olympics Begin with Unified Korean Team Marching Together as Trump Continues to Threaten N. Korea

Lawrence Wilkerson: I Helped Sell the False Choice of War with Iraq; It's Happening Again with Iran

The state Supreme Court threw out Pennsylvania's old maps, ruling they violated the state's constitution and favored one party over another (in this case, the GOP). Control over district lines is so valuable in the Keystone state, one lawmaker suggested booting out unfriendly judges to maintain the old maps. But instead, a new set of maps has been introduced, and The Washington Post says they're "just as gerrymandered" as the last maps.

From a partisan standpoint, in other words, the new map is almost exactly like the old one. Under the existing map, Democratic House candidates have routinely received roughly 50 percent of the statewide popular House vote but only five of the state's 18 House seats. The new map is unlikely to change that.

State Republicans deny this is a partisan tactic. And since the state constitution gives lawmakers the power to draw maps, why shouldn't the controlling party do so? After all, both sides can benefit from having control over the maps.

But this could change soon. The Supreme Court is considering two cases that will likely determine the future of political mapping. These decisions could not only shift the balance of power in Washington, they could fundamentally change how politics are practiced across the country.

The former White House staff secretary, who left the Trump administration on Thursday, was among multiple West Wing aides who had been working with only an interim security clearance.

White House chief of staff John Kelly was told several weeks ago that the FBI would recommend denying full security clearances to multiple White House aides who had been working in the West Wing on interim security clearances.

... The White House chief-of-staff told confidants in recent weeks that he had decided to fire anyone who had been denied a clearance -- but had yet to act on that plan before the Porter allegations were first reported this week. ...
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To what extent did America's best intelligence analysts grasp the rising thread of Islamist radicalism? Who tried to stop bin Laden and why did they fail? Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll recounts the history of the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks. Based on scrupulous research and firsthand accounts by key government, intelligence, and military personnel both foreign and American, Ghost Wars details the secret history of the CIA's role in Afghanistan (including its covert operations against Soviet troops from 1979 to 1989), the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of bin Laden, and the failed efforts by U.S. forces to find and assassinate bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Prior to 9/11, the United States had been carrying out small-scale covert operations in Afghanistan, ostensibly in cooperation, although often in direct opposition, with I.S.I., the Pakistani intelligence agency. While the US was trying to quell extremists, a highly secretive and compartmentalized wing of I.S.I., known as "Directorate S," was covertly training, arming, and seeking to legitimize the Taliban, in order to enlarge Pakistan's sphere of influence. After 9/11, when fifty-nine countries, led by the U. S., deployed troops or provided aid to Afghanistan in an effort to flush out the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the U.S. was set on an invisible slow-motion collision course with Pakistan.

Today we know that the war in Afghanistan would falter badly because of military hubris at the highest levels of the Pentagon, the drain on resources and provocation in the Muslim world caused by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and corruption. But more than anything, as Coll makes painfully clear, the war in Afghanistan was doomed because of the failure of the United States to apprehend the motivations and intentions of I.S.I.'s "Directorate S". This was a swirling and shadowy struggle of historic proportions, which endured over a decade and across both the Bush and Obama administrations, involving multiple secret intelligence agencies, a litany of incongruous strategies and tactics, and dozens of players, including some of the most prominent military and political figures. A sprawling American tragedy, the war was an open clash of arms but also a covert melee of ideas, secrets, and subterranean violence.

Coll excavates this grand battle, which took place away from the gaze of the American public. With unsurpassed expertise, original research, and attention to detail, he brings to life a narrative at once vast and intricate, local and global, propulsive and painstaking.

Wall Street: High-Frequency Trading

If you think the Stock Market represents (is synonymous to) the health of the economy... well think again!

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Headlines

Scores of Democratic Lawmakers Join GOP to Back Budget Bill with No Protection for DREAMers

Olympics Begin with Unified Korean Team Marching Together as Trump Continues to Threaten N. Korea

Lawrence Wilkerson: I Helped Sell the False Choice of War with Iraq; It's Happening Again with Iran

After stiff resistance from diplomats and lawmakers, the secretary of state is lowering expectations.

When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson first announced plans to "redesign" the State Department, U.S. diplomats braced for huge changes ranging from shuttered embassies to dramatic staff and budget cuts. As Tillerson failed to fill top leadership positions, some staffers worried the former ExxonMobil CEO was arrogantly dismissive of their mission.

But a year into his much-criticized tenure, Tillerson is scaling back people's expectations of his vision. Far from swinging a wrecking ball into the 75,000-employee department, Tillerson looks ready to tap with a hammer and chisel. State Department officials say that talk of closing down entire wings of the department has been replaced with narrower plans to upgrade technology and improve training. ...
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Donald Trump Wants to Make It Easier to Start a Nuclear War. This Should Petrify Us.TheIntercept | Mehdi Hasan | 02/08/18

... Yet four months later, in November 2016, almost 63 million of her fellow Americans voted to put the short-tempered, thin-skinned former reality TV star in charge of their country's 6,800 nuclear warheads. Never forget: As president of the nuclear-armed United States, Trump -- Trump! -- has the power to destroy humanity many times over, while rendering the planet uninhabitable in the process.

If that wasn't terrifying enough, last week, less than 72 hours after the State of the Union speech, in which Trump ramped up his war of words with North Korea, his administration announced that it wanted to make it much easier for the president to start a nuclear holocaust. ...
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On January 27, 2017, the President directed the Department of Defense to conduct a new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) to ensure a safe, secure, and effective nuclear
deterrent that protects the homeland, assures allies and above all, deters adversaries. This review comes at a critical moment in our nation's history, for America confronts
an international security situation that is more complex and demanding than any since the end of the Cold War. In this environment, it is not possible to delay
modernization of our nuclear forces if we are to preserve a credible nuclear deterrent -- ensuring that our diplomats continue to speak from a position of strength
on matters of war and peace.

The Rise and Fall of John Kelly's ReputationTheAtlantic | author | date

The White House chief of staff is facing new scrutiny for his defense of a staffer who has resigned following accusations of physical abuse from two ex-wives.

... That's the story of Rob Porter, the White House staff secretary, who announced his departure on Wednesday after published allegations of abuse from his two ex-wives. And more broadly, it's also the story of John Kelly, the White House chief of staff who was Porter's boss and defender.

Unlike many members of the White House cast, Porter is not a household name, but he had rocketed to an important role directly by President Trump's side. He controlled the flow of information to Trump and spent a great deal of time with him. "Porter had good relationships across the ideological spectrum of the White House--from Stephen Miller to Gary Cohn, was one of Kelly's most trusted aides, and was in charge of the weekly trade policy meetings," Jonathan Swan reports. ...
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There's something that happens at every Olympic Games: plenty of politics at play. As all eyes turn to Pyeongchang, South Korea, we offer a guide to get through the 2018 Winter Olympics without missing an important moment -- on or off the slopes.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has confirmed plans are being drawn up for a grand military parade at the request of President Trump. Mattis said the move underlined the respect Trump has for those who serve the country in uniform. Earlier, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin joined those who called the idea of a military parade "a fantastic waste of money," especially if the aim was just to amuse the commander-in-chief.

Meanwhile, President Kim Jong Un is expected to parade his latest military hardware through the North Korean capital on the eve of the Winter Games, underscoring the danger that will remain after the Olympic displays of goodwill are over.

"In the 'old days,' when good news was reported, the Stock Market would go up. Today, when good news is reported, the Stock Market goes down," the president tweeted. "Big mistake, and we have so much good (great) news about the economy!"

For months, the president and his administration touted the surging stock market as an indicator of U.S. economic strength, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossing the 25,000-point threshold for the first time earlier this year.

But Monday, the Dow took a historical plummet the same day Trump delivered a speech on the taxes and the economy. The decline came amid concerns that the massive corporate tax cut could lead to an overheating economy, spurring the Federal Reserve to step in to cool things down. ...
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Lie After Lie: What Colin Powell Knew About Iraq 15 Years Ago and What He Told The U.N.The Intercept | Jon Schwarz | 02/06/18

COLIN POWELL DELIVERED his presentation making the case for war with Iraq at the United Nations 15 years ago, on February 5, 2003. As much criticism as Powell received for this -- he's called it "painful" and something that will "always be a part of my record" -- it hasn't been close to what's justified. Powell, who was secretary of state under President George W. Bush, was much more than just horribly mistaken: He fabricated "evidence" and ignored repeated warnings that what he was saying was false.

Unfortunately, Congress never investigated Powell's use of the intelligence he was given, so we don't know many of the specifics. Even so, what did reach the public record in other ways is extremely damning. While the corporate media has never taken a close look at this record, we can go through Powell's presentation line by line to demonstrate the chasm between what he knew and what he told the world. As you'll see, there's quite a lot to say about it. ...
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The real reason the Nunes memo mattersVox | Zack Beaucham | 01/30/18

When House Republicans voted on Monday night to release a memo, compiled by Rep. Devin Nunes, alleging anti-Trump bias at the FBI, they raised a very serious question for American democracy.

The question is not whether there was a plot against Trump at the FBI, as the Nunes memo reportedly alleges. There is no evidence for such a claim, and it doesn't pass the smell test. The real question is this: Will the FBI and Justice Department remain semi-independent agencies that check the president's authority -- or will they be brought under President Donald Trump's direct control? ...
Read moreThe Method To Nunes Memo Madness | TYT | 02/06/18 | 10:55

... Donald Trump has already announced his desire to increase the massive US nuclear arsenal tenfold. The draft of his soon-to-be-released Nuclear Posture Review seeks significant production of so-called "low-yield" nuclear weapons, because our current weapons are theoretically too big to use with any degree of tactical success. It should be noted that, according to modern metrics, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also "low-yield." An arsenal of smaller bombs is key to Admiral Monroe's fever dream of a winnable nuclear war. It is a dream Trump appears to share.

The world is dangerous enough as it is, one would think. It is so dangerous, in fact, that a great many people are frozen to near-immobility by it, by the sheer immensity of the perils we face. Where to even begin? If you seek a place to lay your chisel, I have two words: "No Nukes." ...
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NYC Taxi Driver Kills Himself at City Hall after Condemning Uber & Politicians for Financial Ruin

The push for legalizing recreational marijuana doesn't just make users happy. The Marijuana Policy Group says Colorado's pot industry created more than 18,000 jobs and generated more than $2.4 billion for the state. And it's predicted that legal marijuana sales could grow to $21 billion in the next three years. Primo.

But even though more states are getting into this market, marijuana is still technically illegal because federal law hasn't changed, despite a shift in public opinion.

Trump ran on reducing the debt -- now he's sending it through the roofSalon | Charlie May | 02/05/18

The Treasury Department is expected to borrow $955 billion in 2018, the most in the last six years

Last year, the federal government borrowed $519 billion, while documents released on Wednesday show that the U.S. Treasury expects to borrow $955 billion this year, the Washington Post reported. While the Treasury only gave a justification because of the "fiscal outlook," the Congressional Budget Office provided further insight and indicated that the reason for an increase in U.S. borrowing is because of the newly passed GOP tax plan.

The Post elaborated: The White House got a taste of just how problematic this debt situation could get this week. Investors are concerned about all the additional borrowing and the likelihood of higher inflation, which is why the interest rates on U.S. government bonds hit the highest level since 2014. That, in turn, partly drove the worst weekly sell-off in the stock market in two years. ...
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Forever defined by a single action, Daniel Ellsberg is known as the man who blew the whistle on the Vietnam War. But neither Ellsberg's choice nor its execution was simple, as Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated documentary reveals.

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers tells multiple stories, of which two are central: The former Rand Corporation analyst's shift from hawk to dove, and the process of releasing those famous Defense Department documents to congressmen, and later, to major newspapers.

Former corporate whiz kid Robert McNamara was the controversial Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, during the height of the Vietnam War. This Academy Award-winning documentary, augmented by archival footage, gives the conflicted McNamara a platform on which he attempts to confront his and the U.S. government's actions in Southeast Asia in light of the horrors of modern warfare, the end of ideology and the punitive judgment of history.

The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick

Oliver Stone and American University historian Peter J. Kuznick began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham cowrote the script. The documentary miniseries for Showtime had a working title Oliver Stone's Secret History of America. It covers "the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism." Stone is the director and narrator of all ten episodes.

Historian Peter Kuznick says Eisenhower called for decreased militarization, then Dulles reversed the policy; the Soviets tried to end the cold war after the death of Stalin; crazy schemes involving nuclear weapons and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba put the world of the eve of destruction - with host Paul Jay

Since World War II, the United States has been almost constantly involved in combat, active participants in a string of wars fought entirely on foreign shores. Eugene Jarecki's documentary examines this phenomenon outside of partisan bickering, thoughtfully exploring what Eisenhower called "the business of war." Speaking to veterans of wars in Vietnam and Iraq, as well as military experts and journalists, the film discusses defense spending, foreign policy and the military-industrial complex.

Blowback: How a CIA-Backed Coup Led to the Rise of Iran's AyatollahsTheIntercept | Mehdi Hasan | 02/05/18

WHY CAN'T IRAN have a secular, democratic government? It's a question Americans often ask of their longstanding Middle East adversary -- especially when they see images of anti-regime protesters taking to the streets of major Iranian cities and towns to demand greater freedom.

Unlike citizens of the Islamic Republic, however, citizens of the United States tend to have short memories. The historical reality is that Iran did have a secular, democratic government, led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh between 1951 and 1953 -- but Mossadegh was removed from power in a coup organized and funded by the CIA and Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6.

With a handful of exceptions -- Madeleine Albright in 2000, Barack Obama in 2009 and 2015 -- most mainstream U.S. politicians have little to say about any of this sordid history. In Washington, D.C., Iranian hostility toward the U.S. has long been treated as inexplicable and irrational, while the CIA's role in the 1953 coup -- which set off a chain of events that resulted in the rise of Iran's ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolution of 1979 -- has vanished into a memory hole.
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eclassified documents released last week shed light on the Central Intelligence Agency's central role in the 1953 coup that brought down Iranian Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadegh, fueling a surge of nationalism which culminated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution and poisoning U.S.-Iran relations into the 21st century. The approximately 1,000 pages of documents also reveal for the first time the details of how the CIA attempted to call off the failing coup -- only to be salvaged at the last minute by an insubordinate spy on the ground.

Known as Operation Ajax, the CIA plot was ultimately about oil. Western firms had for decades controlled the region's oil wealth, whether Arabian-American Oil Company in Saudi Arabia, or the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Iran. When the U.S. firm in Saudi Arabia bowed to pressure in late 1950 and agreed to share oil revenues evenly with Riyadh, the British concession in Iran came under intense pressure to follow suit. But London adamantly refused. ...
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Headlines

When Deportation is a Death Sentence: The Fatal Consequences of U.S. Immigration Policy

When U.S. Needs MLK's Voice More Than Ever, Automaker Dodge Waters Down His Message to Peddle Trucks

A More Beautiful & Terrible History: The Whitewashing & Distortion of Rosa Parks and MLK's Legacies

A brief mention of paid family leave by President Trump in his first State of the Union address seemed to show his support for a federal policy that would protect jobs and compensate workers while they take time off to care for themselves or relatives.

The Family and Medical Leave Act -- which was passed 25 years ago this month -- allows civilian employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for events like a medical illness or the birth or adoption of a child. But, paid leave is largely left to the discretion of the employer.

How would a federal family leave policy give workers the resources they need to provide proper caregiving and assure job security? And why is the U.S. so behind other nations in creating a policy like this?

Polls show that most Americans don't believe polls. Rasmussen found that just over a quarter of Americans trust them (but that's a poll, too). And after the Brexit vote and the 2016 election went against many pollsters' predictions, can we blame anyone who is giving percentages a side-eye?

Trustworthy or not, polls are everywhere. They make for click-friendly headlines and they add a feeling of statistical heft to arguments. To paraphrase Homer, "You can use stats to prove anything that's even remotely true."

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Chief Sergei Naryshkin came just before Trump punted new sanctions and issued a useless 'oligarch' list. What message did he bring from Moscow?

The Russians clearly wanted the world to know that the head of their Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR -- which has been implicated directly in Moscow's efforts to subvert American democratic processes--paid a not-so-secret visit to the Washington area last week for meetings with officials of the Trump administration. That the man in question, Sergei Naryshkin, has been the specific object of U.S. sanctions did not seem to preclude his visit. ...
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Two top Russian spy chiefs traveled to Washington last week to discuss counterterrorism issues with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, but the unusual visit also raised concerns among some U.S. officials that Moscow could interpret the encounter as a sign the Trump administration is willing to move beyond the issue of election interference, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said.

Pompeo met with Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service or SVR, and Alexander Bortnikov, who runs the FSB, which is the main successor to the Soviet-era security service the KGB. ...
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The Daily 202: Why Trump is so eager to release the Nunes memoWP | James Hohmann | 02/01/18

Senior White House officials and advisers say that President Trump wants the document published because he sees it as key to making changes at the Justice Department, particularly pushing out Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

"Few things have frustrated Trump as much as the law enforcement agencies he cannot fully control," Josh Dawsey, Devlin Barrett and Karoun Demirjian report. "Allies say he is upset that he can't control 'my guys' at the 'Trump Justice Department' and that no one seems particularly loyal to him. He has also broken long-held protocols by directly calling Justice Department officials, and instructed his chief of staff to do the same, without the White House counsel on the phone. ...
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After cheering the market's relentless rise, Trump is forced to face the reality of Monday's swift and historic fall.

A global market sell-off accelerated Monday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging nearly 1,600 points at one point in roller-coaster afternoon trading. After a volatile session, the Dow ended down 1,175 points, or 4.6%, at 24,346.

It was the largest ever single-day point drop for the Dow and it rattled both Wall Street and Washington, abruptly ending a remarkable period of placid markets where it often seemed the only direction was up. A young generation of Wall Street traders has never seen the kind of whipsaw action that seized markets Monday. ...
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Americans don't want to mix politics and law enforcement, and support an independent FBIyougov.com | author | date

In the latest Economist/YouGov Poll, the preference for independence in law enforcement is not partisan, as Republicans as well as Democrats reject the belief that senior FBI officials need to be supporters of the President (though Republicans are more closely divided than Democrats or independents on this question).

The poll was conducted this weekend, as Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe resigned just weeks ahead of his expected March retirement from the Bureau. McCabe had been criticized by President Trump, including on Twitter, for political bias, and claimed he had been asked by the President how he had voted when he met the President upon assuming the role of acting FBI Director. McCabe did not vote in the 2016 election. ...
Read moreSHOCKING Deep State Poll Reveals Disturbing Results | TYT | 02/01/18 | 10:01

While this book was on pre-order I read (without exaggeration) twenty-three books on anxiety and depression. I've read many in the past, and I wanted to read everything that had a good reputation. I wasn't impressed. I got so tired of reading the same ideas and advice, which was usually 'breathe deeply' and 'try to be mindful'. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy came up a lot too, which is mind-numbing when you've found its benefits to be so limited. To be fair, many people must get a lot out of what's already out there. But this book is something new. The author doesn't repeat the old ideas; he breaks down assumptions. Rather than seeing depression as a rare malfunction, it's recognised as a response to the dehumanizing world we live in. It's not preachy, and the arguments make sense better than this review can. The references are solid. Better still, it's full of practical ideas for reconnecting with the things that matter. Ease the causes of depression and you can ease depression. A lot of the ideas I knew already, on some level, but seen from this perspective I have seen the power of these ideas. No book will be a cure-all, but if you're looking for help and don't have time to read as many books as I tried, this one will give you more than you expect. Give it time. It's not a quick collection of techniques, but gives you the understanding you need. That's worth a lot more than the same old lists of techniques.

President Trump joined his Republican allies on Friday in piling on with attacks about "bias" in the FBI and the Justice Department as Washington, D.C., waited on tenterhooks for the release of a controversial secret spying memo. The White House said Trump has reviewed the memo and approved its full declassification. The House Intelligence Committee then posted it online.

"I think it's terrible. It's a disgrace what's going on in this country," Trump told reporters. "When you look at that, and you see that, a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that." ...
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Two Months After U.S. Invaded Afghanistan, Donald Rumsfeld Asked What Languages are Spoken There

ROUGHLY TWO MONTHS after the start of U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was still unsure about which languages were spoken in the country and asked aides to provide him a report on the subject. That and other revelations come from a collection of hundreds of Rumsfeld's communications released Wednesday by the National Security Archive, a research center based at George Washington University.

The "Languages" memo is part of a roughly 900-page tranche of Rumsfeld's memos released after a five-year Freedom of Information Act fight by the National Security Archive. Following a FOIA lawsuit filed by the archive, the government agreed to release a total of roughly 59,000 pages of memos in monthly tranches. The first group of memos contains many of Rumsfeld's notorious short internal memoranda, known colloquially as "snowflakes," which were written in the months before and after the September 11 attacks. ...
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Rachel Maddow notes reporting that the subject of the Nunes memo is Carter Page, who has a long history with U.S. intelligence and Russia and unfortunately for Trump is not a sympathetic figure for abuse of surveillance.

Trump Wants Little to Do With His Own Foreign PolicyTheAtlantic | Thomas Wright | 01/31/18

The clash between America First and the global shift to great-power competition

In recent months, the Trump administration has called for a dramatic shift in the direction of American foreign policy. How drastic of a shift? As the administration's National Defense Strategy pithily put it: "Inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in U.S. national security." This means that when it comes to investing in new capabilities and planning for the future, the United States will focus more on threats and challenges from Russia and China than on counter-terrorism, rogue states, and nation building. ...
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Devin Nunes Made 'Material Changes' To Secret Memo Before It Went To Trump, Democrat SaysHP | Jessica Schulberg | 02/01/18

Rep. Adam Schiff called on the House Intelligence chairman to withdraw the document he sent to the president for public release.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee made "material changes" to a secret memo he shared with lawmakers before sending it to the president to approve for final release, the top Democrat on the committee said Wednesday night.

Adam Schiff (Calif.), the committee's ranking Democrat, called on Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) to withdraw the version of the classified memo he sent to the White House on Monday, arguing that a prior vote in favor or releasing the memo was invalidated by Nunes' changes. ...
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Psychiatrist Bandy Lee met with a dozen members of Congress to warn them about Donald Trump. They knew already

or many reasons, Donald Trump's mental health is a subject of great public concern in America. He is a compulsive liar who dissembles about facts both large and small. He is also a malignant narcissist who is desperately -- and successfully -- imposing his own version of reality on the American people. Trump is also violent and appears to lack any empathy or concern for the suffering of others. At times he seems confused and his patterns of speech have changed since taking office in January of last year. Even some of Donald Trump's closest political allies have apparently expressed concern about his mental health. ...
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In Warmongering First State of the Union, Trump Doubles Down on Gitmo & Escalates Nuclear War Threat

James DeVolid, 54, put in so many hours between his two jobs at Tyson Foods and Walmart that his wife, Susan, often joked that he worked "eight days a week." But after DeVolid developed nerve damage, he had to quit last summer the janitorial position he'd held for 20 years at a Tyson Food distribution center in Pottsville, Arkansas. His job required cleaning freezers, and the cold temperatures exacerbated his ailment.

DeVolid kept his other job at Walmart, where he earns $10 an hour moving carts 32 hours a week. But the change cut his annual income from $40,000 to $20,000, and he had to give up the health insurance benefits provided at Tyson's. He figured it would only take a few weeks for his coverage to kick in at Walmart. ...
Read moreWhy Trump's Economy Actually SUCKS | TYT | 01/29/18 | 9:40

After The New York Times first reported the news Thursday evening, Fox host Sean Hannity started his show by calling the Times a distraction and said none of his "sources" were confirming the story.

"The President's attorney dismissed the story and says 'no comment, we are not going there,'" he said Thursday evening before bringing on former White House aide Sebastian Gorka to further bash the Times' reporting. Forty minutes later, Hannity was forced to eat his words after Fox News sources confirmed that Trump did in fact try to fire Mueller this summer. ...
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Trump said Thursday he would consider re-entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement if the terms were more favorable to the U.S. "I would do TPP if we were able to make a substantially better deal," Trump told CNBC during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The comments mark the first time Trump has raised the possibility of rejoining the sweeping trade agreement, which was championed by former President Obama. It's a surprising stance for Trump, who won the 2016 election on a promise to take a more protectionist stance on trade. ...
Read moreTrump Reconsidering TPP | TYT | 01/29/18 | 4:16

Trump has...
spent 26% of his time out on the golf course
spend 33% of his time at a Trump branded property
cost US $43,000,000.00 in tax payer money for golf

In a win for President Trump, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is leaving his post effective Monday--and that's about the only clear thing about his departure.

McCabe, who was appointed to that job under former FBI Director James Comey, was expected to leave his job this spring, when he reached eligibility for a pension. New FBI directors typically choose their own deputy directors, so it would make sense for new chief Christopher Wray to want his own pick. Because McCabe was a civil servant rather than a political appointee, Trump (and other superiors) could not summarily remove him. The president clearly didn't want him in the role and distrusted him, and it's hard to imagine McCabe was enjoying being a political football. Two days before Christmas, Trump tweeted, "FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!" ...
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Exclusive: Ravi Ragbir Speaks Out After Being Freed from "Unnecessarily Cruel" ICE Detention

Ravi Ragbir of The New Sanctuary Coalition: I Was Detained Because of Our Immigration Activism

Two Immigrants Detained in NJ While Taking Children to School; Third Seeks Sanctuary in Church

Over the past 20 years, shale gas extracted through fracking has done small wonders for the U.S. economy. This year, domestic oil production is on track to reach an all-time high.

The U.S. stands to gain a lot from this growth. A 2015 study by Dartmouth College found that the shale industry has created more than half a million jobs, creating boom towns in shale-rich areas of the country. And America's prominence in the sector has already given it more power in the game of international energy politics. Remember when a Middle Eastern oil boycott in the 1970s led to an oil shortage? That can't happen anymore.

But there is a flip side. Environmentalists warn of the dangers fracking poses, and suggest the shale boom might delay development of renewable energy sources. And those fracking boom towns, dominated by men, can become magnets for sexual assault and harassment. Also, the price of oil will keep changing, which means those boom towns sometimes go bust.

Contract work isn't a passing trend. It's here to stay. And it's how 20 percent of employees make a living today. In the next 10 years, some labor economists predict that contract workers will make up the majority of the U.S. workforce.

It's a change that's bound to alter the economy, job culture and labor policy in big ways. The NPR series "The Rise Of The Contract Workers" examines who these employees are and how they feel about their work status. Here are some of the findings* from the reporting:

20 percent of all American workers are contract workers hired to work on a specific project or for a fixed period of time.

The president's long-awaited infrastructure package will expect cities and states to pick up much more of the costs for their projects.

President Donald Trump won the White House promising a $1 trillion, 10-year blueprint to rebuild America -- an initiative he said would create millions of jobs while making the nation's highways, bridges, railroad and airports "second to none."

But the infrastructure plan he's poised to pitch in Tuesday's State of the Union is already drawing comparisons to the The Hunger Games." Instead of the grand, New Deal-style public works program that Trump's eye-popping price tag implies, Democratic lawmakers and mayors fear the plan would set up a vicious, zero-sum scramble for a relatively meager amount of federal cash -- while forcing cities and states to scrounge up more of their own money, bringing a surge of privately financed toll roads, and shredding regulations in the name of building projects faster. ...
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'He has to be normal': Trump's State of the Union aims for unity after a polarizing yearPolitico | Lorraine Woellert | 01/27/18/span>

President Donald Trump plans to set aside his fire-and-fury rhetoric to deliver a conciliatory message in his first State of the Union address, using the televised speech to reach voters beyond his base in an election year marked by intense polarization and a troubled electoral map for Republicans.

Early versions of Trump's speech indicate the president, facing an in-house congressional audience grimly divided along ideological lines, will adopt a unifying tone with the theme of a "safe, strong and proud America." The approach marks an attempt to shift the national conversation from Trump's dismal public approval ratings, an election year that threatens Republican control of Congress and a White House consumed by an investigation into Russian campaign meddling. ...
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Robert Reich: Trump Is Sabotaging the U.S. EconomyAlterNet | Robert Reich / RobertReich.org | 01/29/18

Trump to global CEOs and financiers in Davos, Switzerland: "America is open for business." We're now a great place for you to make money. We've slashed taxes and regulations so you can make a bundle here.

Trump to ambitious young immigrants around the world, including those brought here as children: America is closed. We don't want you. Forget that poem affixed to the Statue of Liberty about bringing us your poor yearning to breathe free. Don't even try. ...
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"Unprecedented Level of Violence" in Heart of Kabul as Taliban Sends "Clear Message" to Trump

With Larry Nassar Sentenced for Sexual Abuse of 160 Female Athletes, Many Now Ask: Who Else Knew?

"Are You a U.S. Citizen?": Trump Could Sabotage the 2020 Census by Adding Controversial Question

"We're Living in a Rigged System": Ari Berman Says GOP Uses Gerrymandering to Stay in Power

It seems President Trump has every intention to make good on his campaign promise to build a wall along the nation's southern border. And it seems he's ready to make a deal to do it.

In exchange for $25 billion for planning and construction of the wall, the president says he'll consider granting citizenship to an estimated 700,000 immigrants who were brought over the border illegally as children.

The financial, cultural and environmental costs of the wall are high. But could this be the best hope for Democrats to get a deal for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA?

For several months, the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was in limbo. Its budget expired and Congress took no action to reauthorize it. Then, relief came as part of the bill that ended the government shutdown last week.

But the future of another vital health service remains uncertain. The more than 10,000 community health centers that treat low-income Americans have not seen a funding reauthorization.

The centers, funded by the Affordable Care Act, retain bipartisan support, The Hill quotes Republican Senator Tom Cole saying "I certainly didn't support Obamacare but I think one of the good provisions was the expansion of the community health centers ... I think they're a wonderful model. They're a much cheaper way to deliver care to people that really need it. So, again, I think there is a commitment there to find a solution."

Trump told world political and business leaders at the annual gathering in Switzerland that as a businessman, he received positive media coverage, but once he launched his presidential campaign in 2015, he realized that reporters were "nasty" and "fake," eliciting boos from people in the audience.

"It wasn't until I became a politician that I realized how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be ? as the cameras start going off in the back," Trump said. The president frequently makes the false claim that television cameras don't air his anti-media remarks. ...
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This week we finally saw the right's defenses of Donald Trump crystallize into an overarching "theory of everything,"as Salon's Matthew Sheffield wrote on Thursday: A Department of Justice and FBI cabal worked feverishly to help Hillary Clinton escape accountability for her crimes, and was only thwarted by the stable genius of Donald Trump. This "secret society" is now doing everything in its power to overthrow the president. We spent the week following three specific strands of this alleged scandal, all of which have disintegrated by Friday morning.

First we had the so-called secret society which was excitedly flogged by the entire Fox News apparatus and taken up, perhaps a bit gingerly, by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. That turned out to be a joke in a text message from one of the FBI lovers at the center of the Republican conspiracy theory. Literally. So that was that. ...
Read moreRepublicans Going Full Alex Jones | TYT | 01/25/18 | 1:10

America has never had a president as deeply unpopular at this stage of his presidency, or one who has sucked up more political oxygen. This isn't good news for the Republican Party this November or in the future, because the GOP has sold its soul to Trump.

Three principles once gave the GOP its identity and mission: Shrink the deficit, defend states' rights, and be tough on Russia. Now, after a year with the raving man-child who now occupies the White House, the Republican Party has taken a giant U-turn. Budget deficits are dandy, state's rights are obsolete, and Russian aggression is no big deal. By embracing a man whose only principles are winning and getting even, the Republican Party no longer stands for anything other than Trump. ...
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President Donald Trump says he's game for a conversation, under oath, with special counsel Robert Mueller. But will Trump's lawyers let him talk? And what was the president's point in asking acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe about who he voted for in 2016?

Plus, the federal government is back to business after a short shutdown, but it's only funded through early February so ... could we face another shutdown in the very near future?

So many things need light shed on them this week. Luckily we're in The Sunshine State to ask all our burning questions. We'll round up the week's news from sunny Orlando, Florida.

THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY maintains a page on its website that outlines its mission statement. But earlier this month, the agency made a discreet change: It removed "honesty" as its top priority.

Since at least May 2016, the surveillance agency had featured honesty as the first of four "core values" listed on NSA.gov, alongside "respect for the law," "integrity," and "transparency." The agency vowed on the site to "be truthful with each other."

On January 12, however, the NSA removed the mission statement page -- which can still be viewed through the Internet Archive -- and replaced it with a new version. Now, the parts about honesty and the pledge to be truthful have been deleted. The agency's new top value is "commitment to service," which it says means "excellence in the pursuit of our critical mission." ...
Read moreNSA Removes 'Honesty' And 'Openness' From Website | TYT | 01/24/18 | 5:15

The radio host, who was for invading Iraq, now thinks it's a liberal plot because . . . Trump?

For some reason," conservative talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh "was thinking about the war in Iraq," as he said on the Tuesday edition of his radio show. There, he asserted that the intelligence community -- led by Democratic elements of the "deep state" -- fabricated intelligence to "damage" former President George W. Bush.

The leader of the conservative evangelical organization Family Research Council said that evangelicals were happy to give President Donald Trump a "do-over" after a previously unpublished 2011 interview with adult film actress Stormy Daniels revealed that she may have been paid to remain silent about an extramarital affair with Trump in 2006.

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Headlines

MLK's Radical Final Years: Civil Rights Leader Was Isolated After Taking On Capitalism & Vietnam War

USA Gymnastics has a lot to answer for -- not least why one of their own, Dr. Larry Nassar, was able to molest so many young women.

From Vox: Many of the victims were minors, sometimes abused with their parents in the room while they were medically examined. There is evidence that Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, the two elite institutions associated with Nassar, were slow to act on reports that he was abusing girls and young women.

More than 150 women gave statements against Nassar. He was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison Wednesday. The president of Michigan State University, where Nassar had worked, resigned a few hours after the sentence was announced.

Top Republican Warns That Under New Spending Bill "The Intelligence Community Could Expend Funds as it Sees Fit"TheIntercept | Alex Emmons, Ryan Grim | 01/22/18

IN A DRAMATIC moment on the Senate floor Monday afternoon, as the upper chamber rushed a spending bill through to end the government shutdown, the top Republican and Democrat on the Intelligence Committee warned that the bill contains language that would kneecap Congress's ability to oversee secret covert actions and surveillance programs. Their effort to amend the language was rebuffed.

The intelligence community, in its latest grasp, has gone too far even for Richard Burr. The Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence committee has long been one of the Senate's staunchest advocates for the intelligence agencies, leading the fight to reauthorize surveillance programs and fighting to bury the results of the Senate's five-year investigation into CIA torture. But he took to the Senate floor Monday to warn that it would compromise Congress's ability to oversee secret intelligence programs. ...
Read moreCongress Hands Trump His Own Private Army | TYT | 01/23/18 | 5:08

Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- at the public urging of President Donald Trump -- has been pressuring FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, but Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed, according to three sources with direct knowledge.

- Wray's resignation under those circumstances would have created a media firestorm. The White House -- understandably gun-shy after the Comey debacle -- didn't want that scene, so McCabe remains. ...

Note: on the full 59:02 video look for small white (or black) circles on the Progressbar they denote the different news stories. You can move the pointer on the Progressbar to jump to each story, and around the video.

Should evangelicals get to evangelize through healthcare? The newly created Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights handles conflicts between health and faith. For instance, if a doctor doesn't want to perform an abortion because of a religious objection, they can go to the new division.

The HHS says this move will "restore federal enforcement of our nation's laws that protect the fundamental and unalienable rights of conscience and religious freedom." But critics say it will legalize discrimination, and is an example of church infringing on state.

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists attacked the Unites States. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. The terrorists flew two of the planes into two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact caused the buildings to catch fire and collapse. Another plane destroyed part of the Pentagon (the U.S. military headquarters) in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that the terrorists on that plane intended to destroy either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. Passengers on the plane fought the terrorists and prevented them from reaching their goal. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York-based financial interests.

An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, and foreign policy objectives. Means of information gathering are both overt and covert and may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis,.

The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone & Petere Kuznick

Oliver Stone and American University historian Peter J. Kuznick began working on the project in 2008. Stone, Kuznick and British screenwriter Matt Graham cowrote the script. It covers "the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism." Stone is the director and narrator of all ten episodes.

Historian Peter Kuznick says Eisenhower called for decreased militarization, then Dulles reversed the policy; the Soviets tried to end the cold war after the death of Stalin; crazy schemes involving nuclear weapons and the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba put the world of the eve of destruction - with host Paul Jay

A report written by a Georgetown University team led by Phillip Karber conducted a three-year study to map out China’s complex tunnel system, which stretches 5,000 km (3,000 miles). The report determined that the stated Chinese nuclear arsenal is understated and as many as 3,000 nuclear warheads may be stored in the underground tunnel network.

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, THE VIETNAM WAR, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides--Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Ten years in the making, the series includes rarely seen and digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th Century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.

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